Obviously, Cavalieri was one of the first supermodels in history. Her beauty and growing popularity won her the attention of some of the greatest opera singers of the time. Great Italian baritone Mattia Battistini fell hard for Lina’s rather modest soprano and strongly advised her to go in for an opera career. A spell of serious voice training fitted Cavalieri to collaborate with the operatic luminaries of the day, and even though her vocal performance was still merely fair-to- middling, her beauty and expressive acting invariably carried the audience. Jules Massenet, the author of the opera Tais, once observed after Cavalieri’s flawed rendition of the leading part that her beauty entitled her to strike a false note every now and then. Men adored her while women kept tabs on her looks. Lina’s beauty and mass appeal redeemed all her errors and shortcomings.
Through the medium of photography Lina Cavalieri became one of the first sex symbols, with her beauty and sex appeal parlayed into a trademark. It is hard to say today whether she could have made it so big without all that hype. Perhaps she would have remained a low-profile chanteuse. But…Indeed, beauty is a mighty force.